Blood Orange and Raspberry Cheesecake Recipe

It’s so nice when an ingredient is actually seasonal, like the Blood Orange. Despite the fact that courgettes are a summer vegetable, and butternut squash makes its appearance in autumn, we can get hold of pretty much anything whatever time of year we fancy it. I have tried to stick to buying my produce seasonally, only when it’s available in Britain instead of being farmed throughout the year and imported from all over the world, but I have grown up in a world of instant accessibility, and it’s going to take some real time and effort to get out of that thought process.

So for now, I’ll stick to getting excited every February when blood oranges start showing up on shelves. Last year I remember seeing so many recipes in all my favourite magazines and websites I wanted to try out, but still couldn’t get hold of a blood orange for love nor money! Eventually I found a bag, and just bought it before even knowing exactly what I wanted to make with them. I came across a cheesecake recipe, but as it was for a standard chilled cheesecake instead of baked, which is my preference, so I’ve adapted it here 🙂 You might notice that I don’t wrap the cake tin in foil and put it in a water bath whilst its cooking – this is because personally I like the cracks created when cooking like this, but feel free to adapt your cooking accordingly if you’d like a smoother finish.

(Fun Fact: a baked cheesecake is considered to be a New York cheesecake, implying that it’s a variation of the original chilled version. However, the baked cheesecake actually came from Poland, and immigrants took it with them when they travelled to New York, so I’m sticking with the fact that baked cheesecake is the original and the best! Thanks to The Hairy Biker’s Northern Exposure programme for that little nugget of useless info!)

Ingredients

Base

75g unsalted butter

150g digestive biscuits

Raspberry Sauce

2 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp cold water

220g fresh raspberries

50g granulated sugar

1 tbsp blood orange juice

Filling

150g caster sugar

400g cream cheese

250g mascarpone

2 large eggs, plus one large egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp plain flour

zest from 1 medium blood orange

3 tbsp blood orange juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease the base and sides of a cake tin

Put the biscuits in a food bag and crush with a rolling pin until they turn to fine crumbs

Melt the butter in a saucepan set over a low heat; it should not begin to turn brown

Add the crumbs to the pan and stir until they become coated in the butter. Remove from the heat

Press the crumbs into the base of the tin, pushing them down with the back of a spoon

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornflour & water with a fork, then set aside

Add the 50g granulated sugar, raspberries & 1 tbsp blood orange juice to a saucepan, and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes, crushing the berries as they cook

Stir in the cornflour liquid, then bring to the boil. Cook for another 1-2 minutes until the sauce thickens

Strain the sauce through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove the seeds

Add the 150g caster sugar to a food processor along with the blood orange zest, and pulse a few times until combined and the sugar has absorbed the oils from the zest

In a bowl, beat the cream cheese & mascarpone until smooth, then add to the sugar in the food processor along with the eggs, vanilla, flour & blood orange juice. Whizz until smooth and very well combined

Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base and smooth the top over

Drizzle over the raspberry sauce and make swirls by drawing a metal skewer through the mix

Bake for 45 minutes until set but a bit wobbly. Turn off the oven and wedge open the door

After 1 hr, remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack. Remove from the cake tin and leave to cool completely before transferring to a plate and chilling in the fridge

Search

Search for:

Text Widget

This is a text widget, which allows you to add text or HTML to your sidebar. You can use them to display text, links, images, HTML, or a combination of these. Edit them in the Widget section of the Customizer.